This invention relates to game playing services for gaming machines such as slot machines and video poker machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods of utilizing smart cards on gaming machines.
There are a wide variety of associated devices that can be connected to a gaming machine such as a slot machine or video poker machine. Some examples of these devices are lights, ticket printers, card readers, speakers, bill validators, ticket readers, coin acceptors, display panels, key pads, coin hoppers and button pads. Many of these devices are built into the gaming machine or components associated with the gaming machine such as a top box which usually sits on top of the gaming machine.
Typically, utilizing a master gaming controller, the gaming machine controls various combinations of devices that allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and also encourage game play on the gaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usually requires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gaming machine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These steps require the gaming machine to control input devices, such as bill validators and coin acceptors, to accept money into the gaming machine and recognize user inputs from devices, including key pads and button pads, to determine the wager amount and initiate game play. After game play has been initiated, the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and may dispense an award of some type depending on the outcome of the game.
The operations described above may be carried out on the gaming machine when the gaming machine is operating as a “stand alone” unit or linked in a network of some type to a group of gaming machines. As technology in the gaming industry progresses, more and more gaming services are being provided to gaming machines using a client-server model. In a client-server model, groups of gaming machines are linked via a dedicated communication network of some type to a remote computer that provides one or more gaming services using the dedicated communication network. These gaming services provided by the remote computer over the dedicated communication network may be referred to as “network gaming services.” As an example, network gaming services that may be provided by a remote computer to a gaming machine via a dedicated communication network of some type include player tracking, accounting, cashless award ticketing, lottery games, progressive games and bonus games.
Typically, network gaming services enhance the game playing capabilities of the gaming machine or provide some operational advantage in regards to maintaining the gaming machine. Thus, network gaming services provided to groups of gaming machines linked over a dedicated communication network of some type have become very popular in the gaming industry. To justify the costs associated with the infrastructure needed to provide network gaming services on a dedicated communication network, a certain critical number of gaming machines linked in a network of some type must utilize the service. Thus, many of the network gaming services are only provided at larger gaming establishments where a large number of gaming machines are deployed.
A progressive game network offering progressive game services is one example where a group of gaming machines are linked together using a dedicated network to provide a network gaming service. The progressive game services enabled by the progressive game network increase the game playing capabilities of a particular gaming machine by enabling a larger jackpot than would be possible if the gaming machine was operating in a “stand alone” mode. The potential size of the jackpot increases as the number gaming machines connected in the progressive network is increased. The size of the jackpot tends to increase game play on gaming machines offering a progressive jackpot which out weighs the costs associated with installing and maintaining the dedicated progressive game network and the dedicated progressive game server.
In the gaming industry, a current barrier to providing network gaming services is the complexity and costs of the dedicated communication networks and servers associated with deploying a network gaming service using a client-server model. The costs of installing and maintaining a dedicated communication network and dedicated server typically limit the application of network gaming services to large establishments with a large number of gaming machines. In smaller establishments, the cost of a dedicated communication network and a server to provide a network gaming service for a small number of gaming machines is usually not justified. For instance, when a small number of gaming machines are leased to a store, the gaming machines typically operate in a “stand alone” mode. While operating in “stand alone” mode, network gaming services are not available to these gaming machines. Further, even in the larger establishments, a gaming operator may be reluctant to implement a new network gaming services because the costs of deployment using a client-server model is high while the benefits of the new network gaming service may not become clear until after the new service is deployed. In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide network gaming service deployment methods for gaming machines that reduce the costs associated with installing and performing network gaming services.